LESSON
Resolving Conflicts
Peacefully Unit
Grade 6 • Ages 11-13
TIME FRAME
Preparation: 10 minutes
Instruction: 30 minutes
MATERIALS
But I’m Mad!
2
Students will be able to recognize how
anger presents itself and learn some
techniques for handling it productively.
Lesson Background for Teachers
This lesson builds on the previous lesson in this unit.
One piece of chart paper
2 Balloons to blow up during class
Additional materials for Science
Extension: Balloon, 2 buckets, Hot
water , Cold water, Ice
Key Terms for Students
Consider writing key terms on the board before class to introduce vocabulary and
increase understanding.
RESPECT
Treating people, places, and things with kindness. RAK Journals
Kindness Concept Posters:
Assertiveness, Respect, SelfDiscipline, Integrity
ASSERTIVENESS Standing up for yourself and what you believe in while
being respectful of the rights and beliefs of others.
SELF-DISCIPLINE Controlling one’s words and actions for
the benefit of self and others.
LEARNING STANDARDS
INTEGRITY
Acting in a way you know to be right and kind in all situations.
Common Core: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.
SL.6.1
Colorado: Comprehensive Health S.3,
GLE.1, EO.c,d,g; Reading, Writing and
Communicating S.1, GLE.1, EO.d
SEL: Self-awareness, Self-management, Relationship skills, Responsible
decision making
Learning standards key
“I” MESSAGES
Self focused statements used when talking
with someone that express how you feel, what
you believe or what you experience.
TIPS FOR DIVERSE LEARNERS
Students might benefit from:
• Being able to reference the examples they listed during the Visual Support
Activity in the previous lesson
• Referencing the Focusing Strategies.
Resources
Teens Reduce Stress and Lower Anger with Breathing Technique
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnXrXX0m-NE
The Incredible 5-Point Scale http://www.5pointscale.com/
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RAK lessons teach
kindness skills through a
step-by-step framework of
Inspire, Empower, Act and
Share.
However, each lesson
starts with the Share step
to reinforce learning from
previous lessons.
Share (3 mins)
Ask students to think of the different people in their families. What are some of the
things that parents get angry about? What are some of the things that brothers and
sisters get angry about? What kinds of strategies do parents use to calm down? What
kinds of strategies do siblings use to calm down? Are they positive or negative?
Inspire
Building Anger (5 mins)
I am going to demonstrate what can happen when we manage our anger in positive
and negative ways. I am going to start with the negative ways. Hold up the empty
balloon and explain that you are going to blow up the balloon a little bit more with
each negative comment. Have the students read the negative comments from the
poster or add your own until balloon pops. (Note: If you have a student in the class
who you think might be disturbed by a balloon bursting, tell them what will happen.)
Do you think that anger can be like this balloon? Why or why not?
Take a second balloon. Blow it up and hold it closed so the air doesn’t leak. Ask
students what they can do to let some anger out. Each time, let a little air out of the
balloon. Add your own comments as necessary until the balloon is deflated.
Empower
Peaceful and Productive Ways to Respond (15 mins)
Anger is a natural emotion that we all experience. It’s not bad. All emotions tell us what
is happening in our bodies and are good clues for us to navigate life. Today we are going
to talk about some positive and negative ways we can deal with our own anger.
Write “Peaceful or Productive Ways to Respond to Anger” on one poster, and
“Unproductive Ways to Respond to Anger” on the board. The chart paper will be
saved for later use.
There are many productive ways to feel your anger. It is a strong and powerful emotion
and we often feel we can’t control it, but we can. When we try to control or prevent our
anger it finds a way out in unhealthy ways. Let’s think of what those ways might be.
Have students make suggestions to put under each heading.
Add any of the following if students haven’t mentioned them:
The RAK paradigm is the framework for
teaching and building kindness skills.
Peaceful or Productive Ways to Respond to Anger:
• Use self-discipline
• Calm down before you react – if you’re body is reacting, you won’t be able to
use your brain to think of creative solutions or see the situation – Your brain is
flooded with chemicals that make you reactive and your heart is racing. That’s
not the time to resolve a conflict.
• Let it out, don’t suck it in. Acknowledge it exists and move to a place that helps
you calm down.
• Accept the things you can’t change.
• Take a moment to feel your anger, name it and be thankful for your emotions
• Tell people what’s going on, say “I’m too angry to talk about this right now, I
need to calm down.”
• Draw on your own integrity .
• Talking through different solutions, using “I” statements.
• Just listen to the other person.
• Respect their opinion.
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•
•
•
•
•
Tell them how you feel.
Walking away.
Wait until you cool down.
Try to work out a solution.
Agree to disagree.
Unproductive ways to deal with a conflict or anger:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Demand that the person agree with you.
Yell.
Use physical violence.
Talk about the person behind their back.
Complain to other people.
Fight.
Hold a grudge.
I want you to think about a time when you disagreed with someone...perhaps a
brother, sister, mom, dad, friend or classmate. What did you disagree about? What
were you thinking and feeling at that time? Did you solve the problem peacefully or
in an angry way? What did you do?
Allow students to share a conflict with a partner and how they resolved it. Then ask
for volunteers to share their conflict with the class. Encourage students to add any
additional responses to the peaceful or angry posters.
Optional Science Extension (10 mins)
Materials: Balloon, 2 buckets, Hot water, Cold water, Ice
To extend understanding of the balloon activity, have the students do this experiment on how hot air causes balloons to expand and cold air causes balloons to
contract. One option would be to have different students do separate parts of the
experiment.
Procedure:
1. Place the mouth of the balloon over the neck of the
empty bottle. It should be a tight fit.
2. Half fill one bucket with cold water, and add some ice cubes to get it really cold.
3. Half fill the other bucket with hot water, being careful not to get burned.
4. Hold the bottle by the neck, then push it down into the hot water so that it
comes up to between half and three quarters of the way up the bottle. Make
sure the balloon stays out of the water and you keep the bottle upright.
5. Leave the bottle in the hot water for a few minutes and watch
the balloon carefully to see if anything happens.
6. Take the bottle out of hot water and place it the same
way in cold water. Watch what happens.
Even though we can’t see the air in the bottle, and we would normally say it
was empty, the bottle is actually full of air molecules. Like all molecules, the air
molecules are affected by temperature—the hotter they are the more space they
need, so when you heat up the air in the bottle it expands and when you cool it back
down it contracts.
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3
After the experiment, ask the following follow up questions:
• How do you think hot air balloons work?
• How could this experiment be done on a larger scale?
• Can you think of any uses for this property of air?
Discuss: “After doing this experiment, can you see any connection between how
molecules are affected by temperature and how we are affected by our anger (i.e.
molecules need more space and we do too!)?”
Wrap Up (5 mins)
To gauge understanding of the material, choose from either the evaluation or
reflection questions as discussion, writing or journal prompts. Consider providing
additional time for deeper evaluation and reflection as needed.
Discuss (or have students write their responses in their RAK journals):
“Think about the conflict you discussed in groups at the beginning of the activity.
Are there some other, positive ways that you could resolve that conflict? Can
you describe a time when you needed to get help from a trusted adult to solve a
conflict?”
Then ask the following questions:
• What happened to the balloon when we read the positive ways to resolve
conflict?
• How do kind words or positive problem-solving techniques help diffuse
conflict?
• In what types of situations do you think that kind words won’t help or make a
difference?
• Do you think people respond better to positive or negative ways to solve
conflict? Why?
Summary
There are many ways to respond when we are angry. It is important to use positive
and productive ways to manage our anger. There are many strategies, and we should
find a strategy that is comfortable for us. We may need to use different strategies with
different people because strategies that work with our parents may not work with our
friends.
Act (2 mins)
Kindness Minute
Visualization is a great calming strategy. Close your eyes and imagine you’re in your
favorite place, eating your favorite food, and playing your favorite game with friends.
Imagine you’re all laughing, everyone is smiling, and now you’ve decided to go to
the ice-cream stand to eat your favorite ice-cream. You get a double cone with two
flavors. Mmmmm…this is the best ice-cream cone you’ve ever tasted. You finish your
ice-cream, hug or high-five all your friends and head home with a big smile on your face
after one of the most fun days you’ve ever had.
Kindness in Action
When you go home, ask the people in your house what ‘calm down’ strategies they use
when they are angry. Make a note of these strategies, and think about which ones are
the most productive and peaceful.
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